----------------------------------------------------------- archivemail - archive and compress old mail in your mailbox ----------------------------------------------------------- INSTALLATION: To install archivemail, run: python setup.py install USE: archivemail is a tool written in python(1) for archiving and compressing old email in mailboxes. It can move messages older than the specified number of days to a separate 'archive' mbox-format mailbox that is compressed with 'gzip'. For example, have you been subscribing to the 'linux-kernel' mailing list for the last 6 years and ended up with an 160-meg mailbox that 'mutt' is taking a long time to load? 'archivemail' can move all messages that are older than 6 months to a separate compressed mailbox, and leave you with just the most recent messages. 'archivemail' can save a lot of disk space and will significantly reduce overhead on your mail reader. The number of days before mail is considered 'old' is up to you, but the default is 180 days. For more detailed information, look at the archivemail man page. 'archivemail' currently works on mbox, maildir and MH format mailboxes and requires python v2.0 or greater. It also supports deleting old mail instead of archiving it with the '--delete' option. The best way to run archivemail is from cron. Giving the '-q' option to archivemail will make it quiet, only printing messages if something went wrong. Check out the 'examples' directory for an example shell script to be run from cron. The archivemail website is at: http://archivemail.sourceforge.net/ -- Paul Rodger